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Pre- Face Lift Upgraded Headlight bulbs

12K views 13 replies 3 participants last post by  Chrisconn04 
#1 ·
Hello Everyone,

I have a 2000 M5 E39 BMW (production Nov99) preface lifted Headlights. I like the look of these, but the highlights are **** when using low beams and are not much better with high beams. I would like to upgrade the bulbs, high, low, and side bulbs without changing the look of the headlamps. I have seen tons of forums on how to facelift the headlights. That was an option until Umnitza kept my money for 6 months and feed me some bullshit on how they are sending the headlights and etc. Now, I love the OEM older look and want to keep them that way, but with me doing night time driving it is not safe. Suggestions on the brightest bulbs and where to purchase these from. My one mate suggested this website, www.superbrightleds.com, has anyone had any experience when them?

After the lightbulbs are achieved I will need to get my headlight adjust and check on the lifters (I have not done much research on this) would you do this on your own or have a garage (Cambridge area if any suggestions) do this? I am in the UK with an American Spec BMW. It did have the light conversation, which was done 5 years ago and I am not too sure what they did.

Thank you again for the help.

V/r,

Chris
 
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#2 · (Edited)
If your lights are not aimed correctly or the adjusters are broken then you will not be lighting the road correctly. Your first step should be to confirm the adjuster are good. with the hood open grab the back of the light and wiggle. Even if the adjusters are good you will get a little movement but they will be firm. If you do this close to a wall with the lights on you will see little change in the light on the wall.

On the other hand if the bulb is moving a measured amount and you can see the cast light move on the wall then your adjuster are shot and you will likely get a 100% perceived light improvement just fixing them.

As far as adjusting you can do it yourself but shops will have a tool that measures the hot spot and can do a much better job, IF THEY ACTUALLY KNOW HOW TO USE THE MACHINE. My experience is most shops have the machine(usually have to have to certify/safety cars by law), but have no idea how to use them.

After you do those things decide on bulbs. What type of high beam do you have? Just making sure you have Osrams for the low beam of the max watts allowed should light the road well. That is assuming your plastic cover lens is not dull.
 
#4 ·
Adjusters

Your first step should be to confirm the adjuster are good.
Thank you for the reply.

I just went and check on the adjusters and they are bad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKWLVZcwrko&t=196s

I have found a great Youtube video on how to replace them and I will do that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lqb7sOyFwU&t=38s

As far as adjusting you can do it yourself
I will attempt the adjust the headlights myself, but if it is not working correctly or if I am still having problems will find a professional.

That is assuming your plastic cover lens is not dull.
I will be taking the lens apart to change the adjusters, how would you recommend cleaning them?

Thank you again for the help.

V/r,

Chris
 
#3 · (Edited)
Definitely follow Sailor24'a advice. Regardless of what you do if there is an issue with any of the areas he mentioned (aim, broken adjusters, bad lens) new bulbs will not do you much good.

If you are getting that horrible output from your lights on high and low I would suspect at least one of the following to be an issue

  • The aim is off due to broken adjusters
  • The aim if off due to poorly/incorectly aimed headlights
  • Fogged/scratched headlight lens
All of those above issues are pretty easy to correct especially with the pre-facelift lights. Adjusters are inexpensive and can be replaced easily. You can polish the lens' yourself pretty easily or maybe just buy new ones as I think the pre-facelift lens is fairy inexpensive . If you have access to level ground facing a vertical wall at night the lights are pretty easy to aim. Although I think they are might be more strict about headlight aiming in the UK so there may be many shops that actually know how to do it properly for you.

You have factory halogen's not the factory xenons correct?

What exactly do you mean when you say your car is/was US spec? If the car was from the US and had US headlights on it then the beam pattern would be incorrect for the UK as you drive on the opposite side of the road. I think with halogens it would just be a matter of adjusting the headlights aim using the adjustment screws. Maybe someone else with more knowledge can confirm that.

You should check your paperwork if you have any and see what they did to convert your US spec car to UK. Worst case scenario they swapped in crappy aftermarket lights and that might be why you are having output issues. If you don't have paperwork, take some pics of lights and post them here. If you give us pics of the front, top, and back of the lights we can tell you if they are OEM or aftermarket.

Once you have ruled out all the above issues you can look into brighter bulbs. I think Philips X-treme Vison and OSRAM Nighbreaker Unlimited are the two brightest 55w halogen bulbs.

Check out https://www.powerbulbs.com/ as a source. I think they are actually based in the UK. I ordered bulbs from them years ago when it was harder to source some of these bulbs from US vendors. Now there are many more vendors out there, so you can may find bulbs from another source for cheaper. Just keep in mind there are also some knock offs floating around.

I have heard of some people using 65w halogen bulbs in their e39s. But keep in mind I don't think they are technically street legal so run them at your own risk for a ticket (especially if they check those sorts of things often in the UK). Also I am not sure if there is any cause for concern due to higher heat output from a 65w bulbs vs a 55w. I have no personal experience with them, but I have heard some people do run them.

If you have factory xenons and the light output is terrible then you most likely have poorly aimed lights, broken adjusters or fogged/scratched lens.

fyi sounds like your friend is telling you to upgrade to LED lights. Is that what you want? I don't think that many people have put LEDs into e39s so I am not sure there is that much info out there for the e39. You might be able to get really good output, but you may also be a guinea pig/trailbazer of sorts trying out different LED setups until you get something that works really well.
 
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#5 ·
Adjuster

The aim is off due to broken adjusters
I have just confirmed that the adjusters are broken. I will be replacing them first.

The aim if off due to poorly/incorrectly aimed headlights
I will need to get this re-aim. The headlights afterward. Might get someone to assist with this.

Fogged/scratched headlight lens
The lens does not look to be in that bad of shape. There is no fog and once they are clean they look almost new. What do you suggest to use on the lens the clean them better?

just buy new ones as I think the pre-facelift lens is fairly inexpensive.
Would you just buy the new pre-facelift head lens or would you try the above steps first? At this point since I have to do all of this work so I just upgrade to the newer looking headlights or keep the old ones? I keeping going back and forth on the idea. I really do not want to order from Umnitza again, but they are one of the best places to order lights from.

You have factory halogen's not the factory xenons correct?
All M5’s came with Xenons. I have attached pictures below.

What exactly do you mean when you say your car is/was US spec? If the car was from the US and had US headlights on it then the beam pattern would be incorrect for the UK as you drive on the opposite side of the road. I think with halogens it would just be a matter of adjusting the headlights aim using the adjustment screws. Maybe someone else with more knowledge can confirm that.
My car is US spec, but I drive it in the UK. I believe when I bought it over 5 years ago the person who did the light conversation broke my adjusters. I will do some more research, but at the moment my head lights are not bothering anyone!

take some pics of lights and post them here. If you give us pics of the front, top, and back of the lights we can tell you if they are OEM or aftermarket.
They are the OEM ones. Nothing was changed. No paperwork was provided either. I have taken some pictures below.

Once you have ruled out all the above issues you can look into brighter bulbs. I think Philips X-treme Vison and OSRAM Night breaker Unlimited are the two brightest 55w halogen bulbs.
Would I use these for the high and low beams? What would I use for the side lights? These will work for Xenons?

Thank you again, for all of the help. I am trying to learn as much as possible before making a choice on what I want to do, but I hate driving this car at night, as I cannot see.

V/r,

Chris
 

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#8 ·
Those don't look too bad. There are kits that come with sand paper and compound and even the buffing wheel available at most auto supply houses.
Found the PDF had it filed in the windshield section, and it was a jpg no wonder I could not find it. The two dimensions are critical so use a tape measure because you are making a triangle. Although I can not explain why because mathematically it should be but 12.5 feet and 1.55 inches (exactly half) don't yield the same results when you back the car up to 25 feet and check. Where I first did mine that meant 4 feet of the car was on the road so I found a new location and did it correctly.
There is another file I saved for installs.
Your car looks like the steering wheel is on the wrong side so I assume it is a UK spec car, but if it is not then you are a bit screwed. The adjusters only adjust height. There is a procedure for changing the right and left angle but I forget what it is.
Text Line Font Parallel Document

Here is the install, I saved this guys page so I will embed it. Near the end he brings up the fact that the lights are for the other side drive. It is a real issue but as I said there is a procedure to swap them. I am sure you will find it if you search hard.


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Hella Euro Headlight Install

May 15, 2009 by chadwik

Even though Sunday was Mother’s Day, I had some help from my brother and my dad so I attempted to upgrade my stock headlights to the “facelift” headlights that the later model year E39 M5s had in stock trim.
I will start out by saying that this purported “straightforward” upgrade was…not so much. It could have been the fact that I didn’t have completely stock housings to begin with or that I just had no experience with installing xenon bulbs or any bulbs on my car. I discovered a deal on M5Board and simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity to upgrade to housings equipped with angel eyes (AE from here on out). In addition, I knew that I didn’t want the stock amber colored AEs, so I purchased the MyCarr ICE High Output OE Upgrade lights from JLeviSW (part# J-1393-01). Since my car is a 2000 model year (MY2000), it was never available with AEs and thus requires an expensive harness in order to power the AEs with the parking lights. Such a harness can be made from plans online but honestly I didn’t want to screw with it. I called Driiv AutoSport (aka Bekkers) since they are local to me and placed an order since I couldn’t find the harness online. A week later my harness showed up and the installation began.
My plan began something like this:

  1. Remove original housings
  2. Remove ballasts and xenon bulbs
  3. Install ballasts and xenon bulbs into new housings
  4. Install new AA bulbs
  5. Attach harness
  6. Install new housings
The plan began simply and easily with the removal of the stock housings. A small trim piece is held on by plastic clips (of the DEVIL…) but I managed to remove them with ease. I inspected the stock housing and compared it to my new Hella Euro housing:
OEM MY2000 E39 Headlamp housing

Hella Euro E39 Headlamp

The two main points to note are the orientation of the transformer mounting brackets and the construction and size of the rubber boot surrounding the xenon bulb. In order to make the transformer from the MY2000 lamp fit the Euro assembly, it had to be rotated. In addition, bulb replacement on the Euro model appears to be one hell of a PITA. The MY2000 assembly allows one to pop the bulb clip off, remove the boot, and have immediate access to the bulb. Here is a comparison:

Unfortunately, this caused a wrath of cursing as my team tried to figure out how to insert the MY2000 xenon bulbs into the Euro housings. For further clarification, here is how the xenon bulb section of the housing compares between assemblies:
MY2000 xenon bulb location, boot removed

Euro housing, boot removed

Notice that the mechanism for securing the xenon bulb in the Euro housing is a tiny notch. Also, the mechanism for securing the cable from the transformer is within the boot itself on the Euro model whereas it is on back of the housing on the US model. The tricky part was trying to figure out how to assemble it all. So here’s the method we came up with…

  1. Install the xenon bulb such that the notch surrounding the bulb mates up with the slot in the housing
    Xenon bulb installation, Euro housing
  2. Place boot (the Euro version) on top of the bulb and rotate it gently to secure it in the housing. The boot actually clicks into place.
  3. Install the MY2000 transformer by rotating it as shown (90 degrees clockwise and flipping it over). Secure it using the Euro bracket.
    Installing the MY2000 xenon transformer
  4. Now the Euro housing should look like the following image:
    After installing the xenon bulb and transformer
  5. Now gently re-attach the xenon transformer cable, rotating it until it locks in place:
    Attaching the xenon transformer cable

    Rotate the end of the cable into place so that it locks.

    The transformer cable is now secured to the bulb

    After all of that work, we connected all of the wires according to the the diagram (and yes, my wiring harness looked exactly like this one), and my angel eyes did not come to life. We double checked the connections and made sure that power was getting to the bulbs. In the process we determined that the power/ground wires did not line up properly for the connection between the angel eye bulbs and the harness. The image below shows how we originally connected the angel eye bulb and the wiring harness:
    Original wiring

    Here is the diagram supplied with my bulbs:
    Wiring diagram supplied with my bulbs

    I’m not sure who’s at fault here, or if anyone is considering the custom nature of this kind of installation, but power from the car was being directed to the BLACK wire of the angel eye bulb. A few quick snips and new connections later and finally we had some results:
    The light control is on the "ON" position here.

    My only concern now is the fact that these are designed for a right-hand drive vehicle and as a result the left beam is higher than the right. I’m not sure if there is a way to reverse this or not. In addition, I’m not sure how much I like the daytime running lamps to be on at the same time as the angel eyes. With the light control switch in the normal (OFF) position, my daytime running lamps are on. In the parking lights position, the daytime running lamps remain on and both sets of angel eye rings are illuminated. In the final (ON) position, the daytime running lamps are off, both sets of angel eye rings are illuminated, and the headlights are on.

Posted in Alektra | Tagged AA upgrade, angel eye upgrade, Angel Eyes, angeleye upgrade, facelift, Hella Euro, m5, M5 facelift upgrade, MY2000 M5, MYCARR | 1 Comment
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  1. on May 15, 2009 at 1:17 am | Reply <cite>Hella Euro Xenon Bulbs vs MY2000 Xenon Bulbs - Page 2 - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)</cite>
    [...] my existing bulbs in the new housings was one heck of a pain in the arse. Here’s my write-up: Hella Euro Headlight Install __________________ 2000 Carbon Black M5 1985 RX-7 GS (Cosmo 13b, T04R, Haltech E6X, the [...]


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#10 ·
I forgot all M5s came with xenons.

Replacing the adjusters should not be too hard. I think it is actually easier to do on the pre-facelift cars. I have done it on the facelift lights which you have to use an oven or a heat gun to open up. The I think the pre facelift ones just unscrew or unclip the assembly.

I agree with Sailor24 your lens look pretty good. If I were you I think I would just give them a quick polish or leave them as they are. If you do decide to polish them you might just be able to skip to the buffing step and skip the sandpaper steps. Fyi I used this 3m kit and I really liked it. There might be some better kits out there now. If you do use that kit (or a other kit with sandpaper) I would maybe just skip to the foam pad and the polishing compound step and see how you like it. It does not look like you really need the sandpaper. fyi if you/any of your friends do paint correction on cars with buffers or DA polishers you/they can use some compound and pads to buff your lens'. If that last bit did not make sense then just ignore it.

If you personally feel you need crystal clear lens' and don't want to bother with polishing them then you could put on some new lens' while you are replacing the adjusters. I think these smoked ones or these clear ones would work (I think Schmiedmann is in Denmark). There are probably some good UK sources too I just personally don't know any. But unless your lens' look much worse in person I would put that lens money towards something else.

As far fixing your lights vs new lights goes in terms of lighting performance they should be the same unless there was a difference in pre facelift xenon vs. facelift xenon light output. But if there were any differences I would think they would not be noticeable (I'll let someone more knowledgeable correct me if I am wrong). The only other performance difference would be if umnitza is upgrading you to bi-xenon projectors, which would give you an increase in high beam performance. If I were you I would replace the broken adjusters reaim the lights and see how you like it. Xenons give really good light output it was the e39 halogens lights that were terrible. The Umnitza option is basically just paying a lot more money for the facelift look and no real performance advantage vs fixing your lights for cheap. Spending that money on new facelift lights is not necessarily a bad thing, but depending on your budget your could probably spend that money on something else.

You mentioned you got new bulbs I am assuming you bought new xenon bulbs as the two that I mentioned are halogens and would not be helpful for your low beams. Although I think the pre facelift cars used H7s for the high beams too, but I am not sure.

Aiming
Check out the attached pdf for headlight aiming it may be helpful. It sounds very technical, but honestly it is not that difficult. I have done it on the facelift lights and it was pretty easy. You just need a vertical wall, level ground, some painters tape, and maybe a blanket (to cover up one headlight to make it easier to concentrate on one headlight at a time).
 

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#12 ·
You mentioned you got new bulbs I am assuming you bought new xenon bulbs as the two that I mentioned are halogens and would not be helpful for your low beams. Although I think the pre facelift cars used H7s for the high beams too, but I am not sure.
I bought the lights you recommend. Do I need to order different ones?

V/r,

Chris
 
#11 ·
So US car then frankly since you are thinking that way buy the new lights just make sure you get them for a UK car not to match your vin. If you adjust your lights correctly instead of lighting the ditch well you will be blinding oncoming traffic. I know there is something you can do but unless you can find it you won't ever light the road correctly.

You said you really like the 2000 lights, if you spend your search time on the board you will find a thread where factory hellas brand new are selling for less than your quote. Good luck, let us know what you did and how happy you are.
 
#14 · (Edited)
I bought the OSRAM Night Breaker Unlimited HB3 and will only need to send the other ones back and get the Xenon Bulbs. I am going to go ahead and upgrade them.

I got these:

https://www.powerbulbs.com/product/philips-xenon-x-treme-vision-gen2-d2s-single

Hope they are great!

Thank you for your help and all of the pictures you provided. Will let you know how it works out in the end.

V/r,

Chris
 
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